HW 58 - Prom Interviews

1. 1 person your age who hasn't been to prom about what they expect the experience to include, some reasons they want to participate or not participate, their thoughts on the dominant social practices (DSP) of prom, etc.

- For this interview i decided to talk to max about what he expects the experience of prom to include. He expects prom to be a fun night and nothing more than that. He views the dominant social practices of prom to be all part of the rite of passage that prom is meant for. He believes that since we're given the chance to celebrate graduating high school, we mine as well take advantage of it. He sees nothing wrong with the dominant social practices of prom.

2. 1 person a little older than you who have been to prom about what they experienced and insights about their experience and the DSP of prom.

- For this interview i decided to talk to alex about his experience at his girlfriends prom.

He described the typical prom in a nutshell: )everyone was dressed up, pictures were taken, tuxedos were rented, kids showed up in limos, etc excluding the after party) . Although alex seemed to be paying more attention to the small details such as the food served at the venue, and the limo ride to the venue: "Since this was my girlfriends prom and i didn't know the kids from her school very well i didn't really like them so the experience in the limo going to prom was awkward".

3. 1 person significantly older than you, ideally parents/relatives/guardians, about what they understand of DSP of prom and their own experiences & insights around this ritual.

-I couldn't believe it when my parents told me they both never went to their school proms. So they don't have any personal experience of prom, but they both disagree with the dominant social practices of it. My dad believes that prom is an excuse for the popular kids to pick on the nerdy kids and that it is a very primitive and irrelevant ritual. He said that "buying a fancy suit and parading around with your date is very staged". My mom believes that no matter how prom is portrayed and celebrated there is always one kid that's unsatisfied with prom in the end.

HW 57 - Initial Thoughts on Prom

Prom, a right of passage. Another way to give humans more purpose in their lives, but why? Why do we feel the need to emulate celebrities for one night just to tell people what it was like in the future? Prom seems to be different from any other night because it occurs at a point in our lives where we are really starting to enter the "real" world. By this i mean becoming an adult by definition (go through college, get a job, raise a family etc.)

The idea that on the night of prom we emulate celebrities is ironic, because just like most celebrities that dress up and pull up in limos (which would be actors/actresses) we follow a certain script at prom. Which include many awkward moments that we feel like we have to live through because it's part of the process. Just like actors, we feel as though a lot is at stake if we don't feel like we follow this script.

1. What are the lasting effects of prom? How does the experience at prom effect ones future?

2. How does the location of the prom effect how people act at prom?

3. What are other ways the idea of prom can be celebrated besides the typical way it's celebrated today?

HW 56 - Culminating Project Comments

Rigel,

Your post interested me right from the beginning because it seemed very different. Rather than just breaking down specific aspects of death and studying them, your project was more focused on the idea of death and its connection with birth and life in general. I liked your ideas that even before the beginning we are some sort of energy, and the questioning of how we really define death.

Christian,

I enjoyed reading your interview with your parents, it was comedic at points but made good points in an interesting conflicts. Cremation is a cheaper method and i could relate to your mom in the fact that I'm also claustrophic but never thought about that and changed my opinion on the way i would want to be taken care of when dead. I also thought your analysis on the idea that religion doesn't always give people the same idea of how they want to be taken care of when dead was interesting.

HW 55 - Culminating Project - Care of the Dead

After learning that i grew up in a society where a typical funeral involves spending thousands on a fancy casket that wont protect the body in it, i wish i could have suggested a healthier option to my mother and her side of the family when they buried my grandmother. With that being said i decided to research more about natural burials, what exactly are they? What makes them more natural? What are the deceased buried in and how much do they cost compared to a typical funeral?

Naturial burials are burials that return the body to the environment as organically as possible, often in a wooded setting. By doing a natural burial you are not only helping the deceased but you are also giving back to the environment. In a natural burial, trees/field stones are usually. planted over the coffin and embalming (the process of injecting a body with preservatives to "protect" it) as well as metal caskets are prohibited.

Embalming is banned because the body may leak fluids that are dangerous to the environment such as formaldehyde in to the soil. In typical funerals, embalming is usually encouraged to give a more "alive" look to the dead when in fact it is dangerous, disgusting and expensive.

Home made coffins are used in a natural burial and are usually used made out of wood/pine. These coffins give people a sense of accomplishment, a better feeling than relying on someone else to handle a loved ones death. Often in typical funerals, people feel pressured to make a decision on the type of casket that they want and end up being pressured in to buying whatever they believe their loved ones will look better in which can end up costing them up to ten thousand dollars for protection of the deceased when fluids usually end up leaking inside the casket.

In a natural burial, it is an option to scatter the ashes rather than bury the body itself. I found this some what of a contradiction, isn't burning a dead body not organic at all? After doing further research i found that the process of cremating a body actually emits fossil fuels in to the air. I see this as a contradiction: although by scattering the ashes in a natural burial site we are giving back to the environment, aren't we also destroying it by burning fossil fuels? Maybe the ashes are burned in a different way in a natural burial compared to cremation, this leads to me to question: Is there a natural way to burn a dead body?

In conclusion, after doing all of this research and reading the book: "Grave Matters" by Mark Harris i have now decided the way i would like to be buried. If i have no control of what i do when i die, why not give back to the environment? I don't believe in heaven or hell, i don't think that when i die i'll be looking down at my grave and thinking: "man, i wish i could have been buried differently". I don't have control of my body once i die, so i mine as well die knowing i definitely did at least one "good deed".

WORKS CITED

Tabitha Alterman.  Natural Burial: Build an Eco-friendly Coffin and Plan a Green Funeral .

Mark Harris.  Grave Matters.  : Simon & Schuster, Inc

New Funeral and Cemetery Services – Green Burials.
Naturalburial.coop.  Green Burials Versus Traditional Funerals

HW 53 - Independent Research A

1. Find 2 articles from the NYT

-Doctors at funerals. One might think that doctors at funerals feel awkward because they feel some sense of guilt for the deceased, but Dr. Danielle Ofri discusses this feeling in a different way. In the hospital death is a feeling that is always around the corner, so one would believe that the relationship between doctors and patients is one that is not very intimate. Ofri shows that that is not always true, even knowing a patient for two years was enough to depress her when looking at this particular patients body. Not only that, but as a doctor Ofri feels that she is not allowed to show as much respect to the deceased as the family and that she JUST the doctor.http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/a-doctor-at-the-funeral/?ref=deathanddying

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/us/21funeral.html?ref=funerals

-With the economy in the state it currently is, home burials seem even more of an appealing alternative option. Typical funerals in the United States cost up to 6000 while home burials cost as low as 250. Besides cost, the feeling of intimacy during a home funeral is alot stronger than a typical one. Dressing a dead loved one gives that person a stronger connection to them.

-The perspectives of both of these texts are very different but similar in one way. That is that they are both written by people on the outside looking in on typical traditions in funerals in one way or another. The first article talks about the typical feeling doctors get when at a patients funeral while the other talks about a healthier more intimate funeral rather than a more expensive/typical one.

2. Interview someone in the death care industry

-When looking for a funeral home to interview someone, i was suprised by the fact that i didn't have to look far. The place is called Greenwich Village Funeral Home and i decided to call and interview the director. The first question i decided to ask was: "What is at least one other healthier option to care for the dead besides a typical funeral?" He told me the first thing on his mind: Creamation. He told me that creamation is a very popular option, but that it is a common misconception for people to believe that you can't have a typical funeral before creamation. The second question i asked was: "What kind of services do you provide at your funeral home?" He told me that they provide a wide variety of services such as arrangement for a grave marker, arranging for music (to give a more intimative feeling to the funeral) and an abundance of religious staff members to help you carry out a funeral (Priests, Rabbis). After reading about different types of caskets, their price and meaning, the third question i asked was: "What type of caskets do you offer?" He told me that they have a large selection of caskets from metal (copper, metal bronze) to wood (pine, oak, cherry).

-In conclusion, i now know what exactly funeral homes can offer. Although this was only one interview it gave me a basic overview. One question i should have asked was "How does your funeral home compare to others? Does it offer more or less?" After doing a little further research, i noticed that most websites for funeral homes do not provide as much, although i can't base my answer just from the website.

HW 52 - Third Third of the COTD Book

precis

-The third third of Grave Matters focuses on three cheaper different burial options as well (compared to second third) The first is a plain pine box, which is exactly what is sounds like. Plain pine boxes are usually better because they are cheaper. The second option is a backyard burial. As Robert Smith stated, it allows you to return the body to the earth where it came from. At allows one to feel a closer, spiritual connection to the deceased. The third option is a natural cemetary which, like a backyard burial allows one to feel more connected to the deceased, but in the fact that the body is actually becoming one with the earth (a biological burial).

quotes

-"Looking at his wife, Ed had one clear thought: "she should have been the one standing there looking down at me, not the other way around"

-" 'It was so much better to have her here than in some hospital or nursing home, where she'd have stranger looking after her,' he says. 'I don't know how i would have managed without these angels of mercy.' "

-"..Billy's father, preserved to appear as if he had just slipped off to sleep and outfitted in his best suit, 'looked like he was going to a great sales meeting in the sky.' "

analytical paragraph

-Just like "Born in The USA" by Marsden Wagner, "Grave Matters" comes to the same conclusion that there are much healthier options to a dominant social practice then most people think. These are ways of not only giving back to the environment (literally for Wagner's book) but assuring a healthier connection for the person mainly involved in the social practice (the relatives of the dead, the birthmother and father). Both authors realize that the typical ways we perform these social practices are nightmares of a modern America.

HW 51 - Second Third of COTD Book

precis

The second third of Grave Matters focuses on three cheaper different burial options (than a typical funeral). The first is the burial at sea, in which someone may either actually be buried in a casket at sea or their remains scattered at sea. The second is the Memorial Reef which is a biological system in which the body is buried with the coral reef and given a special memorial. The third is the home funeral, which is self explanatory.

quotes
"The idea of using human remains to create habitat for marine life has its genesis in the coral reef beds of the Florida Keys"-Pg. 89

" 'The sight of the ashes, particularly if they include recognizable bone fragments, can freak some people out' says Ken. 'The petals give them something else, something beautiful, to focus on"-Pg. 80

analytical paragraph

Before reading Grave Matters, I had no idea that any of these options were available for celebrating the death of a loved one. After analyzing what i had read after every chapter i really came to realize how better these options were because they are cheaper, healthier to the environment, and seem to have a lot more meaning behind them.

HW 49 - Comments on Best of Your Break HW

Omar

Your post was well written and a made a very good point. There is a theme that is common throughout the units which is that the motive for profit screws up different systems in our society. I like the fact that you stated that cremation was also a popular option in the united states primarily because it is cheaper (i didn't know that before).

Tamiko

I like the way you compared and contrasted your younger brothers thoughts with your older brothers thoughts and saw that in the end both of their view points helped you question the dominant social practices involved in funerals. How we often use funerals as a way for feeling bad for the dead (sort of moarning the dead rather than celebrating the life they once lived). Most people never really question how we can treat death other than to hold a funeral.

Dean

Your questions were interesting to compare and contrast. To see how people that you knew were older's perspectives on the care of the dead. Every one you interviewed seemed to have a positive outlook on the topic asked about. I liked the suggestion of donating a dead body to science. I thought about it more, and it seems like a good idea, so why haven't i heard much about it? I guess because religion plays a big role in the care of the dead and most religions believe in having some sort of funeral.

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Harry,

I thought that your blog was very detailed and informative because you gave a lot of background knowledge on traditional Jewish and Christian burials before the interviews. Your parent's views on burial were very unique because we normally read about burials for people who are extremely religious. It was interesting to read what they had to say because they do not seem to be extremely religious although your mother seems to be compelled to have a religious burial while your father does not seem to as compelled her. This made me question why their decisions were made and how they differ from other religious people's wishes for their burials.

Dean

HW 48 - Family Perspectives on the Care of the Dead

When i think about care of the dead in my family, i automatically think about religion. This is because my mom grew up in a jewish family while my dad grew up in a christian one. I know they both experienced multiple deaths in the families growing up, so for my interviews i decided to ask two important questions. 1-How were the dead taken care of from a religious view in your family? & 2-When you pass away, how would you want to be taken care of from a religious view?

For the first question my mom told me that traditionally the Jewish are taken immediately to a funeral home and buried within 24 hours of death. She told me that Jewish funerals are always closed casket and are performed in a synagogue (which is a Jewish house of prayer). For the second question, my mom told me she would like to have a jewish funeral just like her past relatives in her family. Although she isn't an orthodox jew (this means she isn't very religious), she enjoys the cultural aspects of her religion.

When i interviewed my father, he told me that the funerals weren't celebrated very much from a religious standpoint because his parents didn't practice the religion in his family very much. He told me that they more or less claimed to be christian, without ever really paying attention to it. Although his dad had a memorial which is when a bunch of people that knew the deceased or were related go up to talk about the person. When my dad passes he would like to have a regular, closed casket funeral just like his past relatives. He doesn't care much for funerals, but he definitely wants to be remembered in some way.

After interviewing my parents, i realized that care of the dead from a religious view isn't exactly unimportant to them but they don't seem to care very much about the subject. The typical funerals in America (that we see on tv and in movies) are always in some cemetery in a suburban setting, it's fair to believe this is the most widely accepted belief of being taken care of when a relative/loved one passes. As a dominant social practice, we never look to really see what other options there are. We usually let religion decide how we are taken care of when we die, but i want to know other practices. There cant just be one decision to the remembering of your existence.

HW 46 - Initial Thoughts on the Care of the Dead

I haven't been to many funerals, just one actually and it was my grandmas funeral back in the beginning of tenth grade. I believe this is because i haven't been alive for a long enough time to experience more funerals. Just from my basic knowledge of how our society today treats the dead and the one funeral i've been to, i've noticed that we have very efficient ways of "getting rid of the dead"

What i mean by this is we either cremate the dead or put them in a casket underground, so why are these our only options? Depending on your religion the care for the dead might be different but generally Americans tend to choose one or the other. This lead to me to question why, why as Americans are we so disgusted by a body once it is no longer functional? Can't their be other options?

- How does religion play a role in care of the dead?

- How many options can one have in terms of caring for a deceased loved one?

- What is the most popular option in America in caring for the dead?

HW 45 - Reply to Other Peoples' Comments

alexf said...

Harry,
In your project you asked questions about things that we haven't learned about so your really making this your own project which is part of the reason I was so interested. You used a source that was close to you to find out about something that not many people know about which is adopting over seas. The only thing I knew was about celebrities that have done that. Something that particularly interested me was that one of the main reasons of adopting was that there was a lawyer involved. With out that connection do you think they still would have your friend? I also never knew how hard adopting may be, you would think that with so many kids who dont have parents it would be an easy process. This matters to me because I've met many people over the years who have been adopted and I never really asked about it to much.

Alex,

The main points of your comments were that the project was interesting because it is on a topic you don't know much about and it interested you because of that, you didn't know before reading my project that lawyers were involved in overseas adoptions and how you now understand how complicated the process is. To respond to your question: "With out that connection do you think they still would have your friend?" I don't think so. The process seems complicated enough with the lawyer, but without that connection my friend's parents would have to be very lucky.

HW 44 - Comments on Other People's Projects

Alex

In your letter you basically described the industrial atrocities of hospital births in the united states and why and how we can change the current situation america is in. I really liked your idea for change with commercials since they are practically what we see all the time. This project matters to me because it's straight to the point and i agree with it entirely.

Great Post

Max

For this project you looked at 3 aspects of being an OB/GYN and basically came to the conclusion that OB/GYN work diligently, are paid in decently large amounts and gain more of a benefit if they are women. The aspect that really mattered to me the most though was the pay rate. I had a good sense that doctors made a good amount of money but i was still shocked when i saw the chart you posted. This project matters to me because it gave me a deeper insight in to a profession i didn't know very well.

Great post

Christian

In your project you basically summarized the problem with the growing "fads" in america regarding pregnancy and birth. I really liked your comparison of how women are treated similarly horrible in the 21st century compared to the 19th. Although you didn't go in to detail, it made me think about it and if there had been any doubt in my mind of how horribly woman have been treated over time (in hospitals) that statement cleared it for me. This project matters to me because it goes in depth and reveals actual facts of how horrible of a system we have regarding pregnancy and birth.

Great post

HW 42 - Pregnancy & birth culminating project

Choice 1: Organize a personal experience around this topic and write a narrative of your experience

What if i was adopted? This is a question i ask myself frequently, but because i wasn't i don't know what'd i do for sure. I'd most likely try to find my real parents, but be grateful for having parents that took care of me as if they were my own. Adoption itself is one thing, but an overseas adoption is another topic. For this project, i decided to compare and contrast answers to three essential questions through an interview of my friend's father and three other sources.

The first question is: why an overseas adoption? My friend was adopted from Columbia, and when i asked his dad this question he told me that there were two reasons: 1. Because him and his wife had a lawyer contract in columbia, and 2. Because he (the dad) is Puerto Rican and he thought that adopting a child from South America would give the child a sense of cultural identity. In the article The Benefits of International Adoption, the author states: "most parents choose international adoption only after being repeatedly stymied by U.S. adoption protocols—from birth parents that change their minds at the last minute, to stringent and sometimes arbitrary requirements on the part of domestic adoption agencies". Not including the recent fact that celebrities have influenced Americans to adopt internationally, it makes sense that based on my research, the reason for overseas adoptions are 1. Cultural diversity 2. Connections and 3. Adoption agencies in U.S can be more difficult.

The second question i sought to answer was: How difficult is the process of adopting a child overseas? My friend's dad told me that the process was ultimately an agony and that the adoption in Columbia was the easy part, but once back in the U.S it took him and his wife years to get their new son's citizenship. The article: Unwrapping Red Tape to Find the Gift of Family, tells the story of Rebecca Compton and Jeremy Meyer who were trying to adopt a child in Kazakhstan but dealt with complications with the adoption agency after a recent controversy over a previous overseas adoption. The process of the adoption seriously stressed the mother especially: "On many nights in recent months, she has retreated to her hotel room and not known whether to scream or cry or bang her head against the wall in frustration. She said she once dreamed that she was hugging Noah, but then he disappeared, though she could still feel his touch. Then she located him nearby, 'looking up at me with his dark searching eyes,' she recalled, but he vanished again." Based on my research, i can come to the conclusion that the process of adopting a child overseas is not only difficult, but can be mentally stressful and can drive the adoptees to the brink of insanity

The third and final question i tried to answer was: Do children that were adopted overseas try to learn more about their origin later in life? My friend's dad told me that his son hasn't ever tried to find out more about his biological family. "As far as my son is concerned, he's American" he told me, "anything he knows about his cultural heritage is from me". In the article Adopted From Korea and in Search of Identity the author discusses a trend in children that were adopted from Korea in to the U.S (in the past fifty to sixty years) in that most Koreans didn't consider themselves to be Korean until later in their lives. According to a study put out at around the time the article was published, based on the first generation of Koreans that were adopted to the U.S: "as adults, nearly 61 percent said they had traveled to Korea both to learn more about the culture and to find their birth parents." Not only is it tough for these Korean adoptees to accept their cultural heritage once they seek it, but some even face disapproval from the families that adopted them: " 'A lot of adoptees have problems talking about these issues with their adoptive families,' she said. 'They take it as some kind of rejection of them when we’re just trying to figure out who we are.' " Based on this research i can come to the conclusion that most children that were adopted overseas seek cultural identity when adults (or just at a later point in life), but it is not an easy process to say the least.

In conclusion, adopting a child internationally is a huge process . Through my research, i have learned why people do it, how difficult the process is and if the children that were adopted seek any cultural identity. Although adopting internationally is difficult, in the end most children are happy to live with their adopted families and should be as long as their parents took good care of them (as most do).

HW 41 - Independent Research

The aspects i decided to focus on were the effects of overseas adoptions on an entire family as well as celebrity adoptions in general, and why they are controversial.

A.

1.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/us/09adopt.html?ref=adoptions

Nixon, Ron. "Adopted From Korea and in Search of Identity''. New York Times, 9 November 2009

-The article focuses on the fact that most South Koreans that were adopted in the past 50-60 years by white families in the United States have complications with facing their own identity, as most of them rejected the idea of even being Korean considering the environment they were raised in. This source was useful towards my research because it gave me a good idea of how the children raised in an overseas adoption go about dealing with the idea in general (finding your roots, learning the culture etc)

2.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world/europe/24adopt.html?_r=1&ref=adoptions

Levy,Clifford. J "Unwrapping Red Tape to Find the Gift of Family". New York Times, 23 November 2010

-This article tells the story of another controversy over overseas adoption. This time in Kazakhstan where Rebecca Compton and Jeremy Meyer were trying to adopt a baby they seemed to take a huge interest in when selected at the orphanage, but the Kazakhstan government thought other wise. After months of debate and sleepless nights for the couple, they finally won the decision to keep the baby who they named Noah. This article helped me towards my research because it really shows how overseas adoption is an issue in small countries such as Kazakhstan is made in to a huge issue and how it can really effect the people trying to adopt the child as the couple gave up their own jobs for months to wait on the final decision.

3.http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1175428&page=1

"Angelina Jolie Inspires International Adoptions" Good Morning America, 1 October 2005

-This article talks about the fact that Angelina Jolie has now adopted two children from overseas, and this has had a significant impact on other couples strongly considering adopting a child from overseas. One child is from Cambodia while the other is from Ethopia, which has seemed to have an even bigger impact on the decisions of these couples. This article helped me with my research because as a celebrity overseas adoption, every family with doubts of doing the same as Jolie are now more encouraged.

4.http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/05/03/sandra.bullock.black.blogs/index.html?iref=allsearch

Respers, Lisa. France "Bullock's adoption of black baby stirs debate" CNN 7 May 2010

-This article discusses the controversy around Sandra Bullock's adoption of a black child from New Orleans. The article talks about how some believe that the move was just to make her image look better since a controversial anti semetic image of her husband appeared in the news. I found this article to be very significant as it also showed that most people didn't care that much as long as it wasn't an overseas adoption and how looked down upon they are after previous celebrities adopted children from the other side of the world.

5. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/03/01/the-case-for-international-adoption.html

Interlandi, Jeneen

"The Case For International Adoption" Newsweek 2 March 2010

-This article focuses on the overall topic of overseas adoption in general, Interlandi can relate to this topic because he was actually adopted by white Italian parents from Colombia in the late 1970 and states his main point that despite recent controversy over celebrity overseas adoption as long as the child's health and well-being can be taken care of, that is all that matters. This article helped me significantly with my research because it contradicted one of my previous articles where based on the article, i stated that because of recent celebrity overseas adoptions their has been an increase in overseas adoptions when in fact (according to this article) the number of overseas adoptions has decreased by 12,000 from 2004 to 2009.

B.

-Through this research, i could write a paper where i evaluate the long term effects overseas adoption has had on children brought from other countries. From the way they were treated in school by teachers and peers to family relatives. To make my research more specific i could investigate these long term effects on a certain age group (Teenagers/adults/elderly). This idea was encouraged by the first article i listed; how most South Koreans who have been adopted overseas don't accept who they are till later in life.

HW 40 - Insights from Book - Part 3

You find yourself at a cocktail party with the author of the book you just finished reading. To demonstrate that you really read it, you say, "Hey - thanks for writing Born in the USA. Your main idea that women should have more control over their own bodies in the stages of pregnancy and the way obstetricians take advantage of women by doing unnesscary tests and procedures, moved me to rethink pregnancy & birth."

But the author, surprised to be talking to someone who instead of sharing their own birth story actually rephrased the main idea of the text he spent months giving birth to asks, "Really, which parts were most effective or important for you?" When you answer, "Well, in the last third of the book you focused on a better way to be born in the USA and how we can reach that goal, which further developed the first 2/3rds of the book. But let me be more specific." And then you listed the top 3 ideas/pieces of evidence/insights/questions from that final third of the book (and somehow even listed page number references).

1. We need a National Health Care system, which is an essential reason to why other countries have a lower infant mortality rate (#183)

2. There should be a better public education system around maternity care as well as a better system in general (#207/209)

3. Ten steps to help the United States make progress in creating a better maternity system (#219)

At this point, realizing that s/he's having a unique conversation with a serious reader of her/his book, the author asks - "But what could I have done to make this a better book - that would more effectively fulfill its mission?" You answer, "Well, let's be clear - your text sought to provide narratives, historical analysis, journalistic analysis and policy analysis from the perspective of a obstetrician/pregnant woman in the United States for the book-reading-public to better understand pregnancy & birth in our culture. Given that aim, and your book, the best advice I would give for a 2nd edition of the text would be a more in depth look at other countries maternity systems, but I don't want you to feel like I'm criticizing. I appreciate the immense amount of labor you dedicated to this important issue and particularly for making me think about the nightmarish industrial atrocities of hospitals in the United States & how I will help my partner in the future with their birth as it will most likely now be a home birth. In fact, I'm more than likely to do the birthing process differently as a result of your book." The author replies, "Thanks! Talking to you gives me hope about our future as a society!"

HW 39 - Insights from Book - Part 2

List several topics/areas the book has taught you about that the "Business of Being Born" either ignored or treated differently or in less depth.

Midwives have been harassed over the years by obstetricians because of competition:

"The more the practice of midwifery grows and succeeds, the more threatening midwives are to the obstetric monopoly, so, predictably, there has been an obstetric backlash"

-Wagner, Marsden, Born In The USA, Los Angeles, CA

Obstetricians are sued constantly:

"Obstetricians are sued more than physicians in any other speciality, In the United States, a member of ACOG can expect to be sued 2.53 times over the course of his career.."

-Wagner, Marsden, Born In The USA, Los Angeles, CA

If lawyers of doctors are doubting the success of their case they will file orders that make it hard for the issue to be talked about outside of court making it hard for scientists and others to prove the use of Cytotec

"When they don't think they can win a case, lawyers for doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies settle cases out of court and include a gag order on families and their lawyers in the settlement that makes it a crime for them to discuss the case publicly. For this reason, it is very difficult for scientists, policy makers, and health care consumers to discover the extent of the litigation involving Cytotec induction.

-Wagner, Marsden, Born In The USA, Los Angeles, CA

The major insight the book tries to communicate in the second 100 pages

Because of the tribal obstetrics that have taken place in hospitals in (mainly) America in the last century, the rate of failed pregnancies and later complications in the woman's body have increased and should be stopped.

Your response to that insight
Through all the evidence given by Wagner in the past 100 pages I can't help but agree with his better vision of being born through a national health care system

List 5 interesting aspects of pregnancy and birth discussed in the second hundred pages that you agree deserve wider attention (include page number).
-The atrocity that is the traditional "tribal obstetrics"

-Births not delivered in a hospital only seem dangerous by some statistics because most weren't home births

-Claims made by obstetricians with no factual evidence

-The infant mortality rate in places such as Japan are much smaller compared to the U.S

-Home births are more natural therefore statistically cause less deaths in both the mothers position and child's position

Independently research one crucial factual claim by the author in the second hundred pages and assess the validity of the author's use of that evidence.
"Each year, African American babies die at twice the rate of Caucasian babies."

-After looking at several links, Wagner was correct:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2014374282_babies04.html

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/mar/10/medical-mystery/

http://blackamericans.com/blogs/news/archive/2011/03/02/death-rate-for-black-babies-in-first-year-twice-as-high.aspx

HW 38 - Insights from book - part 1

1. How the book is organized

- The book is organized into multiple chapters with small text in large amounts on each page. Citations are always found after any example is stated (which is almost every sentence) with tables and graphs often in the middle of these chapters.

2. The major question the book tries to answer

- How have we as Americans accepted health care for women and babies that is not only below standard for wealthy countries but often amounts to neglect and abuse?

and some responses you have to that question

-We believe whatever the doctors tell us whether it is right or wrong

-We don't do our own/enough research during the process

-Some of us haven't accepted it and are trying to fix the problem

-Obstetricians don't want to lose their jobs/be humiliated

3. The major insight the book tries to communicate in the first 100 pages

- The major insight the book tries to communicate in the first 100 pages is that most obstetricians do not use scientific based evidence around their reasoning for performing C-Sections, epidurals and episiotomies.

and your response to that insight

- I believe that it's horrifying that american obstetricians often don't use evidence around their reasoning for performing these life threatening surgeries that often lead to diseases in the child after a couple weeks/months and that can also kill the birth mother.

4. 5 interesting aspects of pregnancy and birth that you (and the author) agree deserve public attention

1. The way the child is delivered

2. The obstetricians that help carry out these births

3. The medical model America is using for births

4. The drugs used to "help" the mother during birth

5. The mainly false claims made by the ACOG (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists)

5. The author's use of evidence

- The author constantly cites his sources with a "notes" section in the back with provided titles the evidence comes from, along with page numbers, dates and sometimes links to websites. The author uses the evidence well enough to the point where i can read the book without feeling that the progress of the book is being stalled, although the tables in the middle of the pages can be somewhat distracting.

HW 37 Comments on Birth & Pregnancy Stories.

Harry,
I thought that your post was very interesting because you wrote about some events during pregnancy that are uncommon and unusual but could still happen. For example being born during a winter storm played a big part in your birth. This made me realize that there are an infinite number of inputs that can affect the output of your birth. One small event, such as a storm can change an entire birth. It made me wonder what our births would be like if one small factor was changed. Would your birth be different if it was a hot summer day?


Dean

Dean,
I liked your analysis on the preperation of having a child although you could've expanded on the questions in your interviews because it sounds a little redundant. None the less i like your question in bold, but maybe you could've also asked "How do mothers in other countries prepare for birth? What does this say about American mothers?"

Harry

HW 36 - Pregnancy & Birth Stories

In my first interview i interviewed my Dad, although i was not his first child and have heard the story of my birth before i decided to gain more knowledge on that particular story anyway. I was born on February 16th 1994; "Getting pregnant and having a child was a big decision for us mainly because my wife was 40 and i was 56. My wife had some minor complications with her pregnancy as she was bed ridden months prior which was difficult". I was born during a winter storm and the hospital i was being taken to was uptown on the upper east side while we lived downtown in the lower west side so it made things more complicated (plus the elevators were broken in the building). When my mom got to the hospital she just made it, and after all this my dad described the experience as "scary and exciting".

This made me think of pregnancy and birth in our society as being one that is (exactly as i thought) random but expected. My mother may have been given a due date but when her time was expected, mother nature had other plans. This interview helped me understand that pregnancy and birth in our society is random yet expected, but also limits birthmothers to what they can and cant do in times of pregnancy. In my mothers case, she had to stay in bed during most of the pregnancy.

Besides hospitals, where is the second most "popular" place pregnancy takes place?

For my next interview i interviewed my neighbor, who had a child recently. She described her experience of pregnancy to me as "fun, limiting and scary". I asked her what about it was "limiting". She told me that during her pregnancy, she was told not to eat certain foods that could cause harm to the baby. "I always had to remain healthy, yet i was still gaining weight from the baby" she said. "It was a lot of work, but it was worth it the end". Three months ago her son was born, and attention came from everywhere including strangers "People were coming up to me on the street asking me how long till i was expected to have the baby but i also had a lot of support from friends and family, some that i haven't been in contact with from a little while now so the extra support helped me and motivated me."

This interview helped me realize how big of a role pregnancy and birth plays in society today. People will go out of their way to show support for your baby more than any other time in your life (maybe besides your wedding) and it also goes to show how much we really care about other people's lives and decisions even if we have no relation to them at all.

Is there a science to why random people are attracted to a woman's pregnant

stomach?

For my last interview i decided to interview a long time family friend, who's child is 18. She said that the story of her pregnancy can be described in one sentence: "Painful and stressful, but more than worth it in the end". Her daughter is an honor student with amazing grades and is planing on going to Dartmouth. "I would have been very satisfied with having a child no matter what they did (as long as it didn't involve selling illegal drugs or committing crimes) but it feels even better to know i raised to my child to be who she is now and i hope to have enough strength to continue to raise her to follow through with her dreams and succeed even though i know that since she has made it this far, she's grown up enough to carry her own". When she was pregnant, she had slight doubts after her last attempt ended in a miscarriage which was very emotional. "People showed me support but they didn't really know what was going to happen, no one was. I wasn't ready for another disappointment but i kept telling myself through all my doubts that this time it would actually happen.''

This interview helped me come to the conclusion that not only when the mother gives birth is slightly unexpected, but as well as if the birth will even take place. After doing further research, i found out that most miscarriages happen randomly and can even be incurable.

What is the percentage of women in the U.S that have miscarriages?

HW 35 - Other Peoples' Perspectives 1

Pregnancy, having the baby, then becoming the parent. Birth can be a beautiful thing when it finally occurs, ugly in the beginning usually but most parents find births to be a positive outcome for the experience they gain from it as well as the child, thanking the parent in the long run for life and experience. For this assignment, i decided to interview one of my friends, my half-brother and my second cousin.

My friend jay told me he believes that pregnancy is an interesting topic. He told me it is one thing to commit to the idea of having a baby, but another thing to commit to the nine month struggle with stress and pain producing one. This lead him to think of how interesting it must be to watch your child grow up and compare and contrast the similarities of behavior between you and your child. I agreed with his ideas.

My half brother Virgil told me he believes babies can be a beautiful to have. He has had experience watching friends older than him experience raising a child. He said that although at first the process was difficult, most of his friends overall enjoyed the experience of raising a child after 11-13 years (even though they knew there was a lot more to experience with the child). He imagines himself going through the same process once he has reached his 30s. "Although i believe having a child and settling down at a point in a persons life is a typical american perspective, it was meant to be that way"-My Half Brother. I somewhat agree with him, i plan to settle down at one point as well, but not till later in life (40's)

My second cousin thought similarly about becoming a parent. This would be that becoming a parent is something that most people should experience in their lifetime. "Just as long as you are between age twenty to fifty you should take advantage of the opportunity you were given in life to have children"-My second Cousin. She believes that having a child is like a second life relived through your child's eyes, a second chance to fix things through a different you. She also added that even if your child cannot do everything better at what you screwed up on younger that unless your child becomes a stripper or severe drug addict, you should take pride in your children and never let them get hurt. I agreed with my cousins statements completely. You only have one life, and one time to become a parent.

HW 34 - Some Initial Thoughts On Birth

Birth is a very celebrated event. Birth can happen expectantly but randomly and it is usually a very slow and emotional process (by this i mean that your expected DOB is not always when the birth will occur). Typically birth is thought to be carried out in a hospital where doctors can assist the birth, but other people have different methods they use during birth.

Metaphorically and literally, birth is a beautiful thing. If you have ever witnessed a woman giving birth, it is clear that the process is painful and at times ugly but when the birth is complete people celebrate the occasion. I believe that birth should be celebrated but only people who are close to the person giving birth should be allowed to witness it. I believe this because it is a dominant social practice of birth and since it is what i've been taught all my life i choose to believe that it is morally right.

QUESTIONS:

1. Do typical books and learning programs to get your child to become smarter while still in the womb really work and how? What does this have to do with how our minds think consciously and unconsciously?

2. What are all the elements of a decision to give a child away for adoption after birth?

3. How important is birth in america compared to birth in other societies?

.